News From Around Chicago

posted by Ross Melnick on August 14, 2002 at 2:21 pm

CHICAGO, IL — The legendary Chicago Theatre is reportedly on the auction block again as the Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates is “on the verge of defaulting on a $21 million loan from the city”, according to a report in today’s Chicago Tribune.

The theater’s current operator, the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA), is rumored to be a possible buyer. If the venerable theater is sold, CAPA would be among the many different owners who have controlled the former movie palace over the past two decades.

Elsewhere in Chicago, the Broadway Theatre is scheduled to reopen this fall as a live venue. According to the Tribune, the former movie house will be given a $25,000 makeover for various improvements and its name will revert back to the Lakeshore.

And finally, as we reported yesterday, the Water Tower Theatre will reopen this Friday, but this time as a three-screen art house cinema. An $8 ticket will admit you for either “13 Conversations About One Thing,” “Lovely and Amazing,” or the new version of Giusseppe Tornatore’s brilliant epic, “Cinema Paradiso.”

(Thanks to Bryan Krefft for the update!)